It’s June, which means it’s Pride Month AND it’s Email Month! Not to mention it’s almost summer. What a great time of year! And with summer approaching, depending on your industry, you might be hitting a slower time for your business, which means it’s a perfect time to take a deep dive into how your email marketing efforts are holding up.
Email Metrics
One area you’re going to want to take particular interest in is the impact that Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) has had on your email campaigns and how you should measure results. Since the public launch of iOS15 in the fall of 2021 the adoption rate of the new operating system has hit nearly 90%. So, it’s fairly safe to assume that the vast majority of those iOS15 users have opted-in to MPP – and you’re no longer receiving accurate open data for those subscribers.
At CCM we’ve seen open rates boom in 2022 and while we’d like to say it’s all due to our team’s brilliant approach to email marketing – that’s only part of it. MPP is most certainly behind a big portion of the increase. So as a team, we’ve adjusted how we view success. Have you?
Open Rates are still a useful metric, especially if you have insight into user agent details like we do and can sort out suspected privacy opens from Apple’s MPP feature. However, for many this metric has always been a vanity metric; a showboat number that doesn’t tell a true story. It’s the flair and panache that everyone loves about Pride Parades, but it only scratches the surface.
More substantiative metrics to consider focusing on are Click Through Rate and Conversion Rates. These metrics give you a better idea of the effectiveness of your campaign. Higher rates reflect that your messaging, design, subject line – your email – resonated with your subscriber enough for them to take action, to learn more, to convert.
Automated Email Campaigns
You took a deep dive into your email metrics, and everything looks great. So, now what? It’s time to take a close look at your automations. If you don’t already have a list of all your active automations – make one. It’s important to know that what is running is actually what should be running.
Review your automations and compare it against overall email marketing strategy and goals to see where there may be holes in your efforts. For example, is there a step in your sales funnel that isn’t fully addressed in your email strategy? Perhaps there’s an opportunity for added messaging.
Quality Assurance Check
Changes are constant in the email world regarding supported code and rendering changes and within your own company’s operations or industry. Have you remembered to change your emails to keep up?
Take some time to review your codes, links, and logic. There are a lot of moving parts in automated email marketing campaigns and if just one of those parts breaks it can cause problems in the whole campaign. This is where that list of automated campaigns can be really helpful (try including a logic overview and active links for quick quality assurance checks).
Optimize and Refresh Your Email
Now that you’ve taken stalk of your entire email marketing campaign and you know everything is functioning properly and what’s getting the best results, it’s time to try to improve even more. In the first step of the review process, you should have identified what emails perform the best and which ones lack a little something. Consider refreshing copy or updating the overall design.
Is there a new trend in email marketing design you could test out on your audience? Give it a try! Maybe there’s an opportunity to create a more personalized touch with some new data you’ve started collecting for your subscribers? Give it a try! Do you have new photography you could incorporate in your campaigns? Give it a try!
Sometimes small changes can have a big impact, so don’t be afraid to test anything and everything (but not all at once!). You might surprise yourself with what your audience finds engaging.
No matter what you optimize make sure you can feel proud about what you’ve tried – even if the test doesn’t result in a boost in performance. Having pride in your email marketing campaign doesn’t mean always being successful. It might just mean learning something new.
Nevertheless, if you’re feeling a little uneasy about what the right choice is for your email marketing strategy our team of experts are happy to help!
Happy Pride and Email Month!
Marcy Ansley, Director of Email and Social Engagement
Marcy has over a decade of experience working within marketing agencies and managing email campaigns. She is the head of the CCM email service, responsible for overseeing everything from strategy to implementation.